


The Wizard And I

by somnivagrantTraviatus



Series: Yellow Brick Road [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brunswick is its own warning, Earn Your Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Ozpin is not Oscar, Volume 6 (RWBY), attention: this series is very queer, i don't think this is any darker than the show but rated for safety, nontraditional relationship dynamics, this is a promise and a warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:08:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29664297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somnivagrantTraviatus/pseuds/somnivagrantTraviatus
Summary: After the Fall of Beacon, Taiyang woke up with a wizard in his head. Now, that wizard is gone – mostly – leaving him with seven kids to ride herd on, a mystic artifact to deliver, and entirely too many questions left unanswered. As secrets force their way into the light, he's reminded all over again why he walked away from Ozpin's war.This time, he doesn't have that luxury. What he does have is family... if this doesn't tear them all apart.
Relationships: Ozpin & Taiyang Xiao Long, Qrow Branwen & Ruby Rose & Taiyang Xiao Long & Yang Xiao Long, Qrow Branwen & Taiyang Xiao Long, Qrow Branwen & Taiyang Xiao Long & Team RWBY, Qrow Branwen + Taiyang Xiao Long, Qrow Branwen/Ozpin, Qrow Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long
Series: Yellow Brick Road [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126130
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello! Apologies for the wait! I have a significant buffer up, so updates should be resuming weekly.

“Hi, I can take who’s next?”

Taiyang stepped forward, still half-squinting at the menu. Dammit, this was so much easier at home, back when he could just get an espresso and call it a day. “Hi. Uh, can I get a… cappuccino?” Maybe that’d be sweet enough to satisfy his sudden taste for sugar. “Plus a banana nut loaf, a cinnamon coffee cake, a chocolate croissant, a ham and swiss croissant, a cranberry muffin, and –” he mentally ticked off the kids: Jaune, Nora, Ren, Weiss, Blake... “– five hot chocolates?”

The cashier squinted at the register, tongue just poking out of her mouth, and tapped a few buttons. “Is that all for you, sir?”

He laughed, recognizing the wry twist to her smile, and dropped a few lien in her tip jar. “That’s all, promise. I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Great. That’ll be out shortly!”

He retired to the side to wait out the line, one foot pressed flat against the wall he settled into. It wasn’t long before a young lady dropped into the space next to him. With her strappy outfit and youthful countenance, she could have passed for one of Beacon’s students, not that that seemed to stop her.

“Tell me if I’m wrong, but… are you Taiyang Xiao Long?”

“That’s me,” he agreed, sighing inwardly. For all Qrow’s bad luck, he seemed to have an easier time avoiding fans. 

“Wow… A real member of Team STRQ, right in front of me!” The young woman sighed. Her cheeks flushed a delicate pink. “So, what’s a strapping guy like you doing in a place like this? Any chance I could persuade you to come to mine, instead?”

He laughed. At least she was forthright about it. “Sorry. I’m on huntsman business, and a few years too old for you. Maybe try again with someone younger?”

“That so?” This was an older lady, with thick, blue-lensed goggles and a face wizened with age. Her skull-tipped cane stumped against the tile as she stopped in front of him. “Looking for someone with a bit more experience, are you?”

Someone in the line wolf whistled. Tai’s ears heated, but that didn’t stop him from smiling. “I’m flattered,” he told her. “But people would talk if they saw me with someone as young and beautiful as you.”

She harrumphed at him, but he caught the way her lip twitched. “Now, now, don’t you start with me, young man. There’s complimenting someone, and there’s flat out lying. I know I’m an old coot. I’m not so insecure I need you to deny the facts.”

“Who said anything about lying?” The train station’s bustle was soothing and warm, but there was no denying the decades that weighed down Tai’s shoulders. Age was a weird concept when you were in your early forties, but the wizard in your head had lived for hundreds of years. “Trust me,” he said, meeting her eyes. “I’m older than I look.”

“Order 1616?”

And that was the kind of timing you just couldn’t get when you were standing next to Qrow. He collected his order, waved to the throng of staring onlookers, and made his way back to the benches the kids had commandeered.

Qrow intercepted him. Tai knew his teammate too well to miss the hand he snuck into the bag, but he let his bird think he got away with his treat unseen. “You always get mobbed by old ladies when you get coffee?”

Tai smoothed his hair back, smirking smarmily. “More often than you, I bet.”

“Ugggghhhhhhhhh,” Yang and Ruby groaned in sync.

“Sorry, girls,” he said, flexing. A passing stranger _ooh_ ed at the show. “That’s what you get when your dad’s such an attractive huntsman.”

Ruby made a face. “I don’t wanna think about that. You’re my dad! Gross!”

“Personally, I don’t get it,” Yang added, equally disgruntled. “I mean, we’ve got the same genes, you’ve gotta be a _little_ attractive, but with that fashion sense?”

Qrow laughed, plucking berries from his muffin and catching them in his mouth. “Better than Beacon, at least,” he said around his mouthful. “Least now he’s wearing pants.”

Tai beamed at him. “Oh yeah?”

“Oh _no_ ,” Yang groaned.

Qrow facepalmed. “Not like that. Listen, do you even know how many bugs there are out there? Get one tick bite and you'll never want to look at a pair of shorts again. I know you run hot, and I get why you'd want the pocket space, but I don't know anyone who thinks shorts on a grown man is attractive.”

“My very successful track record begs to differ!” Tai crowed. “And you’ll be pleased to know,” he continued, tugging the zipper around his knees, “that these pants are the latest in cargo technology.”

Weiss covered her eyes. “I can’t look. Somebody tell me this isn’t happening.”

Ruby set a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll let you know when it’s all over,” she grimly replied.

“Actually, that looks really practical?” Jaune said. “If you’re somewhere cold, you can wear the full pants, but it gets hotter, or you have a spill or something, and bam! Shorts!”

Tai snapped and pointed at him. “See? You get it!”

“You’re dead to me, Jaune,” Weiss said, emotionless.

Nora squinted, pinching a corner of the discarded pant leg and holding it up to the light. “So, if they’re shorts now… does that mean when they’re zipped up, they’re longs?”

“Wouldn’t that make _all_ pants longs?” Ruby wondered.

Nora furrowed her brow and brought a hand to her chin. “You make a good point.”

“No!” Weiss insisted. “Absolutely not. I _refuse._ ”

Ren coughed. “Was there anything else in that bag, Mr. Xiao Long? We should pass it out before it gets cold.”

“Fair enough,” Tai agreed, zipping his pant leg back on. “And I told you, ‘Tai’ is fine.” He rummaged through the bag, handing out everyone’s treats. “I wasn’t sure what you guys liked, so I just got a bunch of hot chocolates for everyone. Hope that’s okay.”

“But you got _us_ stuff, right?” Yang asked. “I mean, Uncle Qrow has–” She squinted at the empty wrapper. Qrow shrugged. “–had a muffin.”

“He likes to think he’s getting away with it,” Tai stage-whispered.

“Hey!”

Tai dropped the ham and swiss croissant in front of him and waited expectantly. Qrow rolled his eyes, but made a big show of taking the first bite. “Happy?” he asked, mouth full.

“Nutrition is Tai-approved,” Tai told him, mussing his hair in recompense. He was gone and passing out the rest before Qrow could whap him back for it.

Ruby squealed at her chocolate croissant. Yang grinned to receive her coffee cake, pumping a fist. “Hell yeah, favoritism!” Tai was only just beginning his own nut loaf when Qrow pulled him over to the mailboxes.

“What’s up?” Tai asked, keeping his voice low. If Qrow wanted him out of the kids’ earshot, he’d play along.

“Wanted you to double-check Jimmy’s letter,” Qrow said, still licking the grease off his fingers. “I think I got everything, but you were the one who decided what to do about Lionheart. I don’t wanna let my _personal biases_ color James’s impression.”

Tai skimmed it. “Looks fine to me,” he replied. The bigger concern was the sour note under his partner’s voice. “But, Qrow– You know we had to do it like this, right? If word got out that Leo let the White Fang in himself, it’d be chaos. We can’t give people any more reason to distrust the academies.”

“Who’re you trying to convince?” Qrow shot back. He sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “No, I know. I’d just feel better if Oz were here. Any progress in figuring out what’s up with him?”

The banana bread sat heavy in his gut. He swallowed and put the rest back. “Not really.” His voice came out level, which was a relief. “I’m still getting flashes from him, I think, but he must’ve been torn up pretty badly at Haven.”

_Shattered_

_In pieces_

**_Betrayed._ **

_Always alone_  
 _Again AgainAgain_

_Again AgainAgain_

_Again AgainAgain._

Tai winced, sticking a finger in his ear to clear out some of the ringing. “He’s not really… coherent.”

Qrow shoved his hands in his pockets. “Figures.”

“I’ll let you know if anything changes.” Tai sighed. “Trust me; I’d rather I wasn’t in charge either.”

“That was more Summer’s bag,” Qrow agreed.

They stood there, the four of them – two men and two ghosts, in the black hair bobbing through the terminals, the shy smiles drifting by, the white hijab he mistook for a hood by a shop window. Grief radiated through his bones, turning his heart into an aching bruise.

_It never goes away, huh?_

_Cornsilk blue skies Moonlight thunderclouds._  


_A_

_hundred_

_million_

_faces._

_I’ll take that as a no, then._

Something heavy impacted his side. “Daaaaaaaaaad,” Ruby whined. “Uncle Qrooow, c’mon! The train’s almost here!”

A laugh startled out of him as he fought to remain upright. “Oof. What’ve we said about Semblances indoors, petal?”

“If we miss the train it’s gonna _be_ an emergency,” she protested, but remained obligingly human-shaped. Sensing an easier target, she switched to tugging on Qrow’s arm, her silver eyes wide and pleading. “Stop standing around here and come stand around with us!”

“Okay, okay!” Qrow laughed, stumbling after her. He looked back at Tai, eyes alight. “You coming, sunshine?”

Off in the distance, Yang was waving, a crackling halo of gold. “Come on!” she called.

Tai waved back. “I’m right behind you.”


	2. Chapter 2

The kids ran off to claim their bunks as soon as they were on the train, which stung Tai’s tear ducts a little. It was good to see them acting their age.

Qrow, on the other hand, nudged him as soon as they were out of sight. “I'm gonna try and find the bar,” he said, patting his flask. “I'm running low, and there's no sense not taking advantage of complimentary drinks while they're here. Wanna come with?”

That put something prickly in his throat. Disappointment, maybe. Or resignation. “ _Some_ body has to stay sober around here. And I'm not just gonna watch you give yourself alcohol poisoning.”

“Hey, you know I'm not that lucky.”

Tai winced. At least Qrow had the decency to look apologetic. “Right,” he replied, the word as flat as he could get it. “I'll be with the kids. Try not to drink yourself to death, okay?”

Qrow gave him a sloppy salute and slouched off. Tai shook his head and went to check in with JNR.

When he poked his head in, Nora and Ren were flopped over each other on the bottom of one set of bunks and Jaune was staring gloomily out the window from the other. Tai raised an eyebrow. “Everything okay in here?”

“I wanna sleep with Ren,” Nora pouted, “but he's being all _reasonable_ about it.”

Ren shook his head, something fond in the creases at his eyes. “These beds are too small for two people to share one. I don't want to leave Jaune alone over there, either.”

Tai’s eyebrow climbed higher. “As the resident adult here, I’ve gotta ask. Are you two being safe?”

“Why be safe, when you can be fun?” Nora beamed.

Ren looked at her, eyes slightly narrowed. “Getting a concussion because you tried to fit two people on a twin bunk bed on a moving train is _not_ fun.”

“Okay, okay! Party pooper.”

“Uh, guys,” Jaune interrupted, blushing. “I think he meant, like. Condoms.”

“Ohhhhh.” Nora put her hands on her hips. “Well, why didn't you say so?”

“We’re not… like that,” Ren explained, ducking his head. That brought his chin down level with Nora, who giggled and swiped his hair out of both of their faces. 

“What he said,” she agreed, tucking a line of hair behind Ren’s ear. “We’re not, like, boyfriend and girlfriend or anything. We’re just super-tight, know-everything-about-each-other cuddlebug pals!”

“Platonic soulmates,” Ren confirmed, smiling down at her.

“Aw, Ren!” She threw her arms around him, flinging them both against the bed. “I love it when you get all sappy!”

His heart warmed. “Queerplatonic partners? Cool.” They were at about that age, huh? Brought back some fond memories. Looking at Jaune, though… “I bet that gets pretty lonely for you sometimes. You want me to ask Ruby to fill that empty bunk? I don't think she'd mind getting RNJR back together for the night.”

Jaune laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “It's fine! She just got her team back. I don't wanna ruin their team bonding over something like this.” He sighed, gaze turning wistful again. “Besides… these bunks kinda remind me of Beacon. It just wouldn't feel right without Pyrrha.”

“Your fourth?” Tai surmised. It wasn't really a guess, but Jaune’s morose nod confirmed it anyway. ( _Red hair, a glass box, a girl – Amber, Autumn, Fall – with spiderweb scars._ )

“She'd still be here, if it weren't for Ozpin,” he said bitterly, and, oh, that explained the guilt, then.

_(“I need to hear you say it–”)_

No sense dwelling. _He didn't want to think about it._ “How about we give team RWBY a night to settle in, and then after that we mix up your guys’s room assignments a little?” he suggested, seizing on the distraction. “If you're acting as one big team anyway, you could use the time to build rapport.”

Jaune brightened. “Hey, that's a good idea!”

“I _have_ been wanting to get back at Yang for our last wrestling match,” Nora thoughtfully added. ”She'd probably be up for it, right?”

“Absolutely,” Tai sighed, with all the beleaguered fondness of a man who had had to run after his school-aged daughter when she tried to arm wrestle grown adults. “You haven't heard about the time she threw Peter – uh, Professor Port – out a window, huh?”

“Wait, she _what?_ ” Jaune sputtered. “I didn't even know she _knew_ him before Beacon!”

“Oh, yeah! Qrow, Pete, Barty, and I go way back.” He grinned, warming to his topic. “I'm just glad Yang’s never had the patience for our stuffy old people talk. Peter would never live it down if she brought up the ‘rare Solitaean megafauna’ in class.”

“The what now?” Jaune asked.

“Your family scares me,” Ren said.

Nora pitched forward, nearly tumbling off the bed. “This I gotta hear. Tell me everything!”

“Well–”

A loud shudder wracked the train, sending Nora the rest of the way to the floor.

“What was that?” Jaune yelped.

Bad luck, probably. Tai’s lips twisted, all humor gone. “Nora– with me. Jaune, Ren, you keep the passengers calm.”

Ren blinked, rising to meet him. “My Semblance won’t cover that much.”

Tai raked a hand through his hair, the seconds piling up and jangling against his nerve endings. “Just– talk to them. Make sure they’re okay. And keep an ear out in case we need you.”

“Got it.” Jaune nodded. “I’ll take it from here.”

Tai nodded back and tore off to the roof, Nora hot on his heels. 

RWBY and Qrow were already there, of course, fending off a swarm of Manticores and– was that a Sphinx? Brothers.

It was easy to get lost in the rhythm of battle, 天堂闪电战 and Long Memory trading blows against the Grimm’s shadowy hides. He fought on the opposite side as Nora, keeping an eye out to make sure the kid didn’t fall, but her footing stayed stable, and with a helping hand from Tai here and there, she did an admirable job holding her own.

But that wouldn’t be enough for long. “They just keep coming,” he realized. “We’re barely making a dent!”

“There’s gotta be something more we can do,” she said, bringing Magnhild down through another Manticore. “Got any ideas?”

Not really. He wasn’t the tactician – that was Summer’s job. But maybe Qrow had noticed something. “Can you hold this car down by yourself?”

She nodded, eyes fierce. “I got it.”

“Call someone in if you need help,” he ordered. “And be careful! It’s a long drop!”

“I know!” With a grunt of effort, she swung Magnhild up and over his head – vaporizing a Manticore mid-swipe. “Go do what you need to!”

He nodded sharply and ran to Qrow. An icy patch nearly sent him over, but a quick hand caught him and hauled him up.

“Careful,” Qrow warned him, voice harsh with strain. “You only need to get unlucky once.”

“I’dve pulled myself up,” he argued. “But thanks for the save. What are we gonna do about the Grimm?”

“It’s the damn turrets!” A Manticore crashed between them. It was natural as breathing to wait for Qrow’s shots, then plunge a fist through its neck while its back was turned. “They keep attracting more. We gotta get them turned off!”

The turrets? There was one up ahead. It fired, turning a Manticore to mist. Further– there! That huntsman from the station. ( _Dim, inexperienced, haphazard– and weren’t there two?_ ) This one seemed to be holding his own, at least. For now. “I’ll see what I can do.”

But arguing with the man went nowhere. “We _need_ those turrets to protect the train!”

“There won’t be a train to protect if we keep luring more Grimm down!”

And then he noticed that the Grimm were hanging back. The looming shadow confirmed his fears. “Tunnel!”

They ducked down into the train– or at least, Tai did. The other huntsman hadn’t been so quick on the uptake. His scream echoed in Tai’s ears, strange against the sudden ringing in his head.

_This isn’t working._

Somewhere behind him, Qrow was shouting.

_ Not his fault. _

_No?_

_It’s not him._

_The Lamp–_

_Her._

_**Salem.** _

He gasped, eyes flying open. Ruby gingerly stepped next to him. “Dad...?”

“It’s not the turrets,” he said. Or he thought he said. Everything felt so far away. _Like Ozpin._ Ha! That was kind of funny. “Or not just the turrets.” He passed a hand over the Lamp.

Ruby’s eyes widened. Yang threw her arms up. “Seriously? You couldn’t’ve said something earlier?”

Qrow groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Figures. I should’ve thought of that!”

“Thought of _what?_ ” the young man cradling his arm demanded.

“None of your _business_ ,” Qrow snarled at him.

Ruby tugged him back, and Qrow went, shoulders slumping. “That’s not important right now,” she said, her words dropping like ice rounds into the heated air. “What is important is what we’re gonna do about it. Right?”

A series of dull thuds crashed into the train. Everyone nodded.

“Good.” She took a deep breath. “Ren. If Jaune amped up your Semblance, could you hide a train car?”

“I’ve… never used it for anything that big before.”

Jaune set a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll see what we can do,” he told Ruby. “What’s the plan?”

“If we put all the passengers in the first train car, Ren can cloak them. We can stay with the Lamp and take care of the Grimm without putting anyone at risk.” Ruby swallowed. “It’d mean splitting up, but…”

Grief flashed over Jaune’s face. He threw himself at her, wrapping her in a hug. “Only if you come back safe.”

She hugged him back. “Promise.”

When they stepped back, they were leaders again. No one mentioned the wet shine to their eyes. “Ren, Nora– with me,” Jaune ordered. “Bring all the passengers to the front of the train.”

“Got it,” they chorused.

“Blake,” Ruby called. “Can you separate the cars?”

Her ears went down, but she nodded. “I can do that.”

“Everyone else? Prepare for round two.”


	3. Chapter 3

The train crashed.

Loathing jammed itself across Tai’s throat, threatening to choke him. He swallowed it down – more Grimm would be the _last_ thing they needed – and fed it to the furnace in his chest. JNR and the passengers made it out safely, right? That was one good thing in this mess?

(And the rest of the children were stranded out here in Anima’s tundra, with little in the way of supplies and less sunlight with every breath.)

“Now what?!” Yang complained, breath coming out in clouds as she tugged her motorcycle from the snow. (That was another asset, potentially. Potentially a liability. Fuck.) “We’re stranded, without a third of our party!”

“Yang!” Tai tried to keep the strain out of his voice, but the glare she gave him said he failed. Fine. He took a breath and tried again. “I get that you’re frustrated, but this isn’t the time.”

“He’s right,” another voice said. Everyone jumped, but it was only a small, elderly woman who hobbled out from the wreckage. “And you call yourself a huntress? Children these days!” Her blue-lensed eyes shuttered as she stared at each of them in turn. “I don’t know who taught you, but they clearly needed to do a better job. All of you! Ground yourselves and let it go, before you bring the Grimm down on us again!”

Her sharp tongue, so much like Glynda’s, eased some of the weight off his shoulders. Thank the gods _someone_ was being responsible, even if it was the strange lady who had flirted with him back at the station. 

It only riled Qrow up more, though. “Lady,” he growled, looming over her, “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t see where you get off telling hunters how to act.”

“Maria Calavera,” she replied, drier than bone. “I’ve known more than a few huntsmen in my time, young man, and the only one wound tighter than you" – she nudged him in the chest with the end of her cane, forcing him back – "could hardly take two steps without being mobbed by Grimm. Now, I don’t know about you, but I would rather not tempt fate right now.”

“Do we have a choice?” Blake asked. “Apparently, we’ve been attracting Grimm since we left Haven!”

Tai’s hand went to his hip – and found nothing. The swelling emotion came back in full force. “Where’s the Lamp?”

“Here.” Ruby handed it to him, head down. “It must’ve gotten jostled in the crash.”

He tousled her hair. “Thanks, petal. That could’ve been real bad.”

“I don’t know,” Weiss mumbled. “If it got lost in the snow, maybe it could save us all some trouble. No one would find it out here, right?”

“Watch it,” Qrow snapped. “That’s a Relic you’re talking about.”

Yang threw her hands up. “What does that even mean?! All we know it does is attract Grimm!”

_We know knowknow_

_We know knowknow_

_know We knowknow._

Qrow jerked his head in Tai’s direction. “Ask your dad. With Ozpin gone, he’s the only one with a shot at knowing.”

 _Is that all I’m good for?_ Tai wanted to snap, but he wrestled down the urge. “It’s the Relic of Knowledge,” he said instead. “I don’t know anything more than that.”

“Maybe it could… tell us what to do?” Ruby asked. “I mean, if we don’t know what to do, maybe it does.”

“That’s a great idea, Ruby,” Yang sniped, heedless of how her sister flinched. “Hey, Lamp! You wanna say something before we freeze to death?”

 _She so infrequently hears her name,_ something distantly mused.

_Ozpin? Please! What do I–_

_You know._

_You know. Say her name. You know._

“...Jinn?”

The snow… froze. So did the wind. The spirit of the Lamp unfolded, stretching, in perfect, stinging silence.

“Greetings,” she said.

“Hi?” Ruby gave her a shy wave.

“Well, aren’t you adorable!” Jinn brought her face close, pinching Ruby’s cheek. Ruby winced, but gamely put up with it until the spirit’s attention turned to Tai. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, old man. Though you aren’t looking quite so old right now.” She laughed, an elegant hand coming up to curl over her chin. “A little joke. Would you like me to continue my introductory speech?”

Tai swallowed, making very sure to look nowhere but at her face. It would have been much easier if she hadn’t been bright blue, floating, and trailing little jingling noises with every movement. “Please,” he agreed.

“Well then!” She gave them a celebratory spin, bangles ( _shackles_ ) clinking merrily. ( _No wonder they’d got along._ ) “I am Jinn, a being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. I’ve been graced with the ability to answer three questions every one hundred years. You are in luck, as I am still able to answer” – the slightest pause – "two questions this era.”

Qrow shifted in the corner of Tai’s eye.

“Tell me,” Jinn continued, “what knowledge do you seek?”

Tai looked over at each face, but no one had anything to say. Ruby was the only one who met his eyes, and she shook her head. “You go ahead,” she whispered.

No pressure or anything.

“What –” He cleared his throat. “What do we need to know?”

Like a switch had been flipped, the world went white.

The story Jinn told was familiar. A fairy tale he’d forgotten, a bedtime story he’d never known. Stranger were the faces he saw, no two the same, all of them faces he had seen in the mirror, cut shaving, caught in glimpses of his armor. This was his story. All of him.

_That’s me that’s methat’s me_

_That’s me that’s methat’s me_

_That’s me that’s methat’s me_

Pride. Grief. Shame. Guilt. Joy. Fear. They drowned out her words in a million permutations, but he didn’t need to hear them to know. Until that final, fateful question.

“How do I destroy Salem?” he asked.

_I was young, prideful. I thought I could be the one to put this all behind us._  
_It broke him, when he found out._

“Y _o_ u c _a_ n’ _t_ ,”

she answered, and it rebounded through every one of his minds.

“How long have you known?”

A breath. He took another. Which one of them had – ? None of them. That was Qrow, close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath, the redness of his eyes. _Known what?_

_Salem._

Tai swallowed. This was going to hurt. 

“Since Beacon fell.”

Bright pain cracked against his jaw – dulled by his aura, sharpened by Qrow’s rings. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” Qrow demanded.

 _You think I **wanted** to know?!_ The words scraped against his anger and ignited. “When?!” he asked, voice shaking with fury. “When you thought our daughter was dying? When we found out Leo betrayed us? When I was busy getting the shit kicked out of me because I had the _audacity_ to wake up like this?! What did you want me to _say,_ Qrow?!?”

“I dunno,” Qrow spat. “Maybe that we’re throwing our lives away on a war that will never end against an enemy we can’t beat? _Fuck,_ Tai! I thought I was finally doing something _good_ with my life!” He laughed, near hysterical. The shattered note burst into a sob, breathless and wretched and entirely too vulnerable for a man who still called himself Branwen. “He must’ve thought I was such an idiot.” 

Heartache tempered the rage. Tai raised a hand, but there was no comfort to be given. He let it fall. “Just because she can’t be destroyed doesn’t mean our efforts are worthless.”

Qrow snorted wetly. “Sounds like something he’d say. So what’s the plan, _Ozpin?_ If you can’t kill her, what then?”

_Oz?_

_Ozpin?_

_Please._

There was no answer.

Qrow’s back bowed under some unseen weight, years of secrets piled up, like so much snow, on his downturned shoulders. “Raven was right,” he rasped. “Meeting him was the worst luck of my life.”

“Enough.” Maria’s voice cracked like a ruler against a desk, almost gentle in how it avoided Tai’s fingers. “We need to get a move on. It’ll be dark before we know it and every one of you is _spewing_ negativity.” She pointed at a worn trail, just visible through the snow. “Trails usually lead somewhere. Wherever it is, I’d rather be _somewhere_ than standing around here, doing nothing.”

“But…” Ruby stammered, “if there’s no plan–”

“You can come up with one when we’re inside and dry,” Maria snapped. Ruby flinched, and she looked away, eyes shuttering in something like regret. “I understand that you’re upset,” she said, quieter but no less firm for it. “I’m still coming to terms with the fact that this is apparently humanity’s second time around. But if we don’t move, we _die._ And I have _not_ lived this long just to die out here in the cold!”

“You’re right,” Tai said, when no one else moved. “Let’s get going.”

Blake and Weiss gave him twin suspicious looks. “I think I’d feel better if someone else carried the Lamp,” Blake said. Weiss gripped her arm, but nodded.

“Fine.” Tai stifled a ragged sigh. “Who wants it?”

The snow continued to fall. 

Ruby raised her hand. “I’ll take it,” she mumbled.

He tossed it to her, relieved when she didn’t fumble. She attached it to her belt, and he nodded sharply. “Great. Anything else?”

The wind whistled through the trees. Weiss dipped her head and began packing up her things. Blake knelt to help her.

Yang came up next to him. “So that’s how it is, huh?” she asked quietly. “You’re just gonna be another one of his lives?”

“It’s not like you’re thinking.” He looked down at Long Memory, following the whorls of vines around its hilt. He had traced those curves so many times. “Those people… The merge is complete, but they don’t just stop being who they were before I got there.”

Yang stepped back, eyes wide and scared. It took him a second to realize why.

Qrow took one long, last pull from his flask. “Don’t lie to us, Tai,” he rasped when it was empty. “If that’s who you are.”

Tai flinched. He searched Qrow’s eyes, looking for some sort of sign, but there was nothing there.

His partner dropped away from the eye contact. “She deserves better than that.”


End file.
